Features

by David Tykol, Editor

Our bus parked at the lip of the valley and everyone gasped. Looking out at a landscape of bleached-tan earth nearly devoid of green grass or vegetation, we saw hundreds of giant cones and pillars — like 3-story-tall termite mounds tinged in yellows and reds — that seemed to be piercing through the ground skyward. Surrounding this were undulating cliffsides and rock masses. The scene was both beckoning and foreboding.

Three million years ago, the region of Cappadocia in central Turkey was blanketed in ash and lava laid down by multiple eruptions of two...

by Harvey Hagman, Fort Myers, FL

Tahiti’s jagged gray peaks pierced the opalescent dawn, the foaming white surf roaring and streaking along the sheltering reef, the surge coming to rest in a heart-stopping turquoise lagoon lined by a white-sand beach.

Where were we? On the island of Moorea in French Polynesia.

An introduction

If this wasn’t paradise, it was close enough for us. The sensuous siren French Polynesia had my wife, Kathy, and me in her grip — soaring tropical islands, turquoise seas, Garden of Eden vegetation and the friendly, smiling Polynesians...

by Noel Canfield including text and photos from Roger Canfield, Contributing Editors

Visiting Israel was a childhood dream of mine, one inspired by films such as “Exodus” and “Ben Hur” and my reading the Bible and James Michener’s “The Source.” So I was thrilled to be invited aboard El Al’s inaugural nonstop flight from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv/Yafo (Jaffa) for a tour July 23-30, 2006.

A week before our departure, Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel from Lebanon, wounding and killing Israelis, Arab and Jew alike. I did decide to go through with my trip, but I...